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Day Four (Thursday 15th May): Conversations Between Workers – 5KCBWDAY4

Start by writing a few short paragraphs from the point of view of one of the tools you use for your craft. Then, write a dialogue between yourself and this item.

My 2.5mm DPNs

We’re the second set of 2.5mm double pointed needles that my owner has. The first came as a kit for her first pair of socks. She favours us though as we are pointier and are very nice and shiny. We’re a set of five KnitPro Novas (and she hasn’t lost any of us yet, unlike the poor 2.25mm that got lost down the back of her parents’ sofa). We’re mainly used in the creation of socks. We’ve seen many socks in many styles, and I think we’re her favourite size to use. We’re not bitter when she picks a different size though.

So, why are we your favourite needle size?Because you create the perfect balance between socks that knit up at a bearable speed and a nice tough fabric that won’t wear out quickly.

Why are you so good at losing one of us, (luckily not permanently…yet).It’s not my fault. When I put one of you down for only a moment you seem to get bored really quickly and wander off and hide somewhere. I put you somewhere safe, then the next minute when I need you again you aren’t there any more. Luckily I usually catch you before you get too far.

We don’t tend to wander far, but I guess we do get bored easily. Anyway, it’s not just one of us, sometimes you lose us all!I’ll admit that probably is my fault. I like putting you in safe places, and sometimes when I’m travelling that means inside a ball of yarn. It’s not my fault if you then hide your points and can’t be seen any more! Surely, as this is my blog, I should be asking the questions?

What did you want to ask?Well. What’s your favourite socks I’ve knitted with you?

Probably the Gimli Socks for Nick. You used gorgeous yarn (it was from Solstice Yarns) and the pattern was really interesting.I enjoyed knitting them too. I have something to admit though. I just looked through my projects and I seem to use the 2.25mm set more than you. Do you mind?

Not too much. You’ve lost one of them but you haven’t lost one of us, and you tend to use us quite a lot anyway!I’m glad you don’t take it personally. I think I’ll take my blog back now if you don’t mind…

Go ahead. Just remember we’re waiting for you to start something new!

So, that was a bit of an odd post but I wasn’t totally sure what to do with the brief. If you want to see more from this challenge, Google 5KCBWDAY4.

I’m aware that I need a better heading image for my blog, Twitter, etc. and so decided this would be the perfect time to do some experimenting for that. I’ve taken a few photos and am going to play around with them, documenting what I do.

First, I took one of my favourite cakes of yarn (to look at, to knit with is a different story…) and took a photo of it as I usually would. In case anyone is interested it’s Easyknits DW Toughie in ‘Who’. This is on a white background, with plenty of light and not much else. This is the raw image, no cropping, no brightness altering, nothing.

It’s perfectly good for documenting in my Ravelry stash, but it’s not very interesting. So then I remembered my fabric with cakes on it and thought that would be a good background, as it’s a cake of yarn.

The colours of the cakes are a bit vibrant for my liking and take away from the lovely colours of the yarn. Now is when I begin to play around with the image. I’m using The Gimp for this, as it’s free.

First, I tried taking all the colour out of the background. (I used this tutorial)

I like it, but I’m not sure about the fabric as a background. I took a close up of the yarn.

This shows the colours off really well. But how about using a stripe of colour? This time I also cropped it so that there is no background.

The colours stand out really well. This gave me an idea. The main reason of doing this was for a new blog header. What if I had a band of coloured yarn at the top and bottom, with the grey scale in the middle where the text goes?

I really like this look. I think the middle may be a bit too dark though. How would it look if I used really pale colour instead of grey?

I like that more. I think that’s what I’ll go with. The next problem is making the rest of my blog fit!

Day Two (Tuesday 13th May): Dating Profile. (5KCBWDAY2)Write a dating profile for one of your past finished projects

Name: I’m Half Hour to Spring.Age: Just under 1 year. (I was begun on 15th June 2012 and finished about a year after on 8th June 2013)

Physical Description: I’m a lace shawl, made with a silk, cashmere and alpaca laceweight yarn called Lace Cashsilk 1200 by Tri’Coterie. I’m a pale blue with subtle stripes of lilac and mint. I’m soft, light and nearly weightless. It’s very hard to tell, but my delicate lace pattern is not entirely flawless as I was one of the first lace projects made by my creator. I don’t let this bother me as it’s pretty hard to spot.

Interests: I love pretty dresses and fancy clothes. I would love to be worn to summer tea parties, keeping the chill off my owner’s shoulders during the cool evenings.

Things I Hate: I hate anything that could catch on me. Nails, rough wood, velcro and buckles are all my enemies.

Currently I haven’t been out much. Most of my time is spent folded carefully in a drawer, awaiting the right moment to be worn. I hope that this summer I will get my wish to go to at least one tea party, and be worn on various occasions. I hope that in the future my owner will continue to look after me as well as she does now, although I do hope to be able to get out more.

This week is the annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week and I’ve decided to join in. If you want to see more posts along the same theme, Google 5KCBWDAY1.

Day One (Monday 12th May): A Day In The Life. (5KCBWDAY1)Describe a day in the life of a project that you have made, or are in the process of making.

My offering for today is a little odd, but when I saw my Serpentine scarf sat on the corner of my desk, this is what happened.

A day in the life of the Serpentine scarf

For the past two weeks I’ve been sat on her desk, ignored, while she works on other things. Most recently that’s been her new shawl for her concert band ball, and her newest round of sock madness socks. Those are finished now, and I feel that, as one of her oldest remaining works in progress, she might pick me up again soon. Apparently I wasn’t good enough to be finished for the ball because I was the wrong colour. I try not to take that personally, but to see something finished so quickly when I was begun so long ago seems a little unfair.

I hope she wears me when I’m finished. When I was just a skein of yarn, I saw her finish a lace shawl, but as pretty as it was, I’ve never known it to be worn. I hope I don’t get put in that drawer, to wait forever for a time to be worn.

I was started last July. She gave me life from a skein of fancy yarn, and I hoped she’d finish me quickly so I could be worn and seen. Alas, it was not to be. My intricate lace detail meant she could only knit me when she could concentrate. She put me away for a while, when I was still small, but I think she finally wants to finish me now.

I’ve been taken to so many places before. Visiting her family and her boyfriend’s family, carefully put away out of the reach of dogs. Today I think, I hope, she’s going to take me to her knitting group. I’ve been several times before and the knitters there always admire my shiny, vibrant colours and intricate lace work.

Even when she puts me away for a while, she never takes my needles to use on other things. She’s done that to a lot of other projects, but never me.

I can’t wait to be finished so I can be worn. Then I’ll get to see many more places, and many more people will get to see me. Right now though, from my curled up pile in the corner of the desk, it’s all just a dream.